Ivanchuk wins European Championship – in Turkish

5/30/2004 – He is one of the deepest chess players in the world, but Vassily Ivanchuk has many other talents. For instance he managed to pick up enough Turkish to thank his host at the closing ceremony in their native tongue! You don't believe it? We have
videos, pictures, games and results.

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Fifth European Individual Chess Championship

The European Individual Chess Championship was staged by the Turkish Chess
Federation, under the auspices of the European Chess Union and with the support
of the General Directorate of Youth and Sport of the Turkish Republic. It ran
from May 15 until May 30 2004 in Antalya, Kemer-Beldibi, Turkey. It was a 13-round
Swiss, and the rate of play was 1.30 hours for the game + 30 seconds per move.

The winner after tie-break games was Ukraine GM Vassily Ivanchuk. Runners-up
were Predrag Nikolic and Levon Aronian. Full results and games are given at the
bottom of the page.

In the picture above Vassily Ivanchuk appreciatively examines his European
Championship trophy. From left to right: Ali Nihat Yazici, the President of
Turkish Chess Federation, GM Levon Aronian, who took third place, winner "Chucky",
ECU president Boris Kutin and runner-up GM Predrag Nikolic. Ivanchuk won €8,000,
Nikolic €5,000, Aronian €4,000. A total of €43,500 was paid
out in cash.

Tiebreak games, with Nikolic vs Ivanchuk on the left

In the end it was Ivanchuk (with black on the left) who secured the title

Third place went to 21-year-old Armenian GM Levon Aronian

Video of
Tie Break Final Round (9 MB)
Ivanchuk arrives for the tie-break against Nikolic, meticulously adjusts
his pieces, Nikolic has a question about the clock. We see other tie-break
games waiting to begin. The arbiter starts the clocks and Ivanchuk kicks
off with 1.e4 (Nikolic plays 1...e5).

Video cocktail
party (4.2 MB)
At the end of the tournament there was a cocktail party. The video shows
Ivanchuk talking with Ali Nihat Yazici, the President of Turkish Chess Federation,
then Predrag Nikolic chatting with ECU president Boris Kutin, and finally
legendary Swedish GM Ulf Anderson.

Video
Ivanchuk speaking in Turkish (2.6 MB)
He is a man of many talents. Vassily Ivanchuk not only won the tournament,
turns out he can thank his hosts in their native tongue. This is the one
you do not want to miss.

All of the above videos and pictures are taken from the official site, which
did some scruffy but very exciting blow-by-blow coverage. Click on the image
below to get all the results and games. There are a large number of uncaptioned
pictures, and videos in DivX format.

See also

3/27/2018 – Sergey Karjkin didn't succeed in posing serious problems for Ding Liren and after, what he called, a "terrible blunder", he had to scramble to save a draw. That left Caruana in great shape to win the tournament. Mamedyarov struggled to find winning chances with black against Kramnik, but in the end that game ended drawn as well. Caruana, needing only a draw, was in command against Grischuk and even won the game to finish in clear first by a full point! | Photo and drawings by World Chess

See also

1/28/2018 – Magnus Carlsen won the 80th Tata Steel Masters which was decided in a blitz tiebreak over Dutch number one Anish Giri. The players contested two blitz games with 5 minutes plus 3 seconds per move, with no sudden death Armageddon game needed. Vidit played solidly to earn a draw that was enough to win the Challengers, as Korobov could not manage to pull off a win with black on-demand. | Photo: Alina l'Ami TataSteelChess.com

Video

The setup for White recommended by Valeri Lilov is solid and easy to play – the thematic moves are almost always the same ones: Nge2, 0-0, Bg5 (or Be3), Nd5, Qd2. Later, according to Black’s setup, things continue with f4 or even Rac1, b4 and play on the queenside. Starting with the classic Botvinnik-Spassky, Leiden 1970, the author describes this universally employable setup in 7 videos (+ intro and conclusion).